Tuesday 18 March 1661/62

All the morning at the office with Sir W. Pen. Dined at home, and Luellin and Blurton with me. After dinner to the office again, where Sir G. Carteret and we staid awhile, and then Sir W. Pen and I on board some of the ships now fitting for East Indys and Portugall, to see in what forwardness they are, and so back home again, and I write to my father by the post about Brampton Court, which is now coming on. But that which troubles me is that my Father has now got an ague that I fear may endanger his life. So to bed.

12 Annotations

First Reading

dirk  •  Link

ague

Sam's entries have mentioned this mysterious "ague" several times over the last weeks, and it has been suggested that it was probably some kind of swamp fever.

"Ague: Any intermittent fever characterised by periods of chills, fevers and sweats. Most commonly identified as malaria. Malarial Fever. Malarial or intermittent fever characterised by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times) and followed by an interval or intermission whose length determines the epithets: quotidian, tertian, quartan, and quintan ague. Popularly, the disease was known as "fever and ague," "chill fever," "the shakes," and by names expressive of the locality in which it was prevalent

vicenzo  •  Link

great find:I find it strange that Two leaders that affected History, did Die of the Mosquito, Alex of Macedonia and Crumwell of Hunts.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Fascinating site, JWB! Thank you. Mention is made there that the people in marshy areas of Essex thought that the smell arising from the marches caused the ague - the bad air - as was thought with the plague (we'll come to that in 4 years' time - if we are all still here).

Noel C. BonTempo, MD  •  Link

Malaria is an Italian word which, if broken down into its component parts mal and aria, translates as bad air.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"ague"
Cromwell is said to have refused to take the "Jesuit Powder" read quinine that might have saved his life.

vicenzo  •  Link

Nature gearing up to keep nature in balance again in 21st century.
http://www.dhhs.state.nh.us/DHHS/…
Greed helps to eliminate the Mosquito : By using the idea of enclosure, the Fens were drained, not for the ague but to raise more cows and food stuffs for the Landed Lords. See the Bills for bog clearance [fens] befpre and after the Between the Rexees [Chas I- Chas II]

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Bad air

JWB, many thanks for a fascinating find.

Second Reading

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"Luellin": English speakers always found the "khl" sound of the Welsh double "L" difficult. Shakespeare called his Henry V character "Fluellen". Even today, one old native of South Pembrokeshire of my acquaintance determinedly calls Llanelli "Lanelthy" - and he actually played rugby for their team in his youth!

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘ague, n. < Anglo-Norman < post-classical Latin acuta
1. An acute or high fever; disease, or a disease, characterized by such fever, esp. when recurring periodically, spec. malaria. Also: a malarial paroxysm, or (esp. in later use) the initial stage of such a paroxysm, marked by an intense feeling of cold and shivering . .
a1616 Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) ii. ii. 113 That same Ague which hath made you leane.
1678 S. Butler Hudibras: Third Pt. iii. i. 38 'Tis but an Ague that's reverst, Whose hot fit takes the Patient first.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 101 An Ague very violent; the Fit held me seven Hours, cold Fit and hot, with faint Sweats after it.’

Third Reading

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